Books blog + Google | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog+technology/google
Indexen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017Tue, 26 Sep 2017 21:30:23 GMT2017-09-26T21:30:23Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2017The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Midsummer Night's Dreaming: the RSC takes a smattering of Google fairy dusthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/may/08/midsummer-nights-dreaming-rsc-google
An internet production of Shakespeare's classic comedy is not so much the RSC dumbing down as Google flaunting its cultural credentials – and that can only be a good thing<p>In last week's blog, about The Great Gatsby, several of you expressed anxiety about the liberties <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/06/the-great-gatsby-baz-luhrmann-reviews" title="">Baz Luhrmann's film</a> might be taking with Fitzgerald's text. Making a movie out of a novel – even a short one such as Gatsby – is always going to involve a violation of the material, a loss of nuance and subtlety, the cutting of characters and scenes, and so on.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/may/08/midsummer-nights-dreaming-rsc-google">Continue reading...</a>Royal Shakespeare CompanyTheatreStageWilliam ShakespeareCultureGoogleGoogle+InternetTechnologyWed, 08 May 2013 08:54:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/may/08/midsummer-nights-dreaming-rsc-googleRobert McCrum2013-05-08T08:54:00ZThe Dragon Lords, world's first 'cloud-sourced' novel, prepares to landhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/dec/17/the-dragon-lords-novel-silvia-hartmann
Silvia Hartmann's latest work was written on an open Google Drive document, with 13,000 collaborators offering critiques and even providing a title<p>2012 has been the year in which the digital book has taken readers by the throat. You might think it's a shame that it was EL James who achieved this, but – deal with it, friends – the e-book has come of age. Big Time. Putting Fifty Shades into perspective, we must acknowledge that the arena of new fiction is passing, and has passed, into cyberspace.</p><p>More seriously, as this blog has often noticed, the 21st century, with all its life-changing technology, has ushered in a new age of reading and writing. Across the planet, on screens, laptops and mobile phones, more people than ever before are receiving the written word in any number of new formats, and transmitting it too in tweets, texts and emails. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/dec/17/the-dragon-lords-novel-silvia-hartmann">Continue reading...</a>FantasyFictionBooksCultureCrowdsourcingGoogleTechnologyMon, 17 Dec 2012 17:26:57 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/dec/17/the-dragon-lords-novel-silvia-hartmannPhotograph: Alamy/F1online digitale Bildagentur GmBrave new world … are 'cloud-sourced' novels the future? Photograph: Alamy/F1online digitale Bildagentur GmPhotograph: Alamy/F1online digitale Bildagentur GmBrave new world … are 'cloud-sourced' novels the future? Photograph: Alamy/F1online digitale Bildagentur GmRobert McCrum2012-12-17T17:26:57ZHerman Melville's Moby-Dick: leviathan greatnesshttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/oct/18/herman-melville-books-moby-dick
This giant masterpiece continues to draw fresh interest – there's more than enough brilliance for everyone to fillet<p>It might, as Google so kindly points out with <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/18/herman-melville-moby-dick-google-doodle" title="">another of its random-anniversary doodles this morning</a>, be 161 years since Moby-Dick was published in the UK, but the novel still seems to be everywhere. If it isn't <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/03/lynne-ramsay-moby-dick-film" title="">Lynne Ramsay plotting a film version set in outer space</a> – "It's about this mad captain whose crazy need for revenge takes the crew to their death. I'm taking people into dark waters and you see some casualties on the way" – then it's China Miéville (I've just realised how similar their surnames are! Coincidence??) turning the whale into a giant white mole in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/23/railsea-china-mieville-review" title="">Railsea</a>, or – and I haven't seen this – <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/09/age-of-the-dragons-trailer-review" title="">last year's film adaptation, complete with dragons</a> and Vinnie Jones.</p><p>At least it hasn't suffered the erotic fate <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jul/17/fifty-shades-classics-erotic-rewrites" title="">so many of the classics seem to be undergoing these days</a> … although we do have <a href="http://www.tressugar.com/Kate-Beckinsale-Reads-Moby-Dick-Erotica-24064365" title="">this Kate Beckinsale reading</a>, which is faintly disturbing.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/oct/18/herman-melville-books-moby-dick">Continue reading...</a>Herman MelvilleBooksFictionGoogle doodleInternetGoogleTechnologyCultureThu, 18 Oct 2012 13:09:53 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/oct/18/herman-melville-books-moby-dickPhotograph: Allstar/Warner BrosMoby Dick, as filmed by John Huston, with Gregory Peck starring. Photograph: Allstar/Warner BrosPhotograph: Allstar/Warner BrosMoby Dick, as filmed by John Huston, with Gregory Peck starring. Photograph: Allstar/Warner BrosAlison Flood2012-10-18T13:09:53ZFrench publishing giants cave in to Google's great copyright heisthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/nov/22/hachette-google-digital-public-library
With Hachette opening up its archives to Google, calls for a public digitisation project are getting more urgent than ever<p>Will no one stand up to Google? French publishers used to be in the vanguard of opposition to the internet giant's mass digitisation programme, the so-called Google Print Initiative (GPI). Not any more. Last week, Hachette, France's biggest publisher, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/nov/18/digital-deal-hachette-livre-google" title="">made an agreement with Google</a> to scan thousands of out-of-print French titles for Google's online library.</p><p>The devil, of course, is in the detail. Hachette maintained that the deal broke a contractual deadlock "in an honourable and positive way", while Hachette retains control over which titles Google would be allowed to scan. Well, they would, wouldn't they? On the face of it, Google has pulled off yet another copyright heist under the skull and crossbones of "free content", putting yet more pressure on all the remaining hold-outs in the library world.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/nov/22/hachette-google-digital-public-library">Continue reading...</a>PublishingGoogleTechnologyBooksCultureMon, 22 Nov 2010 14:26:55 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/nov/22/hachette-google-digital-public-libraryPhotograph: Helen King/CorbisMass digitisation … more words for the Google hoover.
Photograph: Helen King/CorbisPhotograph: Helen King/CorbisMass digitisation … more words for the Google hoover.
Photograph: Helen King/CorbisRobert McCrum2010-11-22T14:26:55ZGoogle maps the way to a national digital libraryhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/01/google-copyright-national-digital-library
Publishers are still struggling with the audacious Google Books initiative. But something constructive could come from this chaos<p>This blog has often addressed the question of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/feb/08/robert-mccrum-e-books" title="intellectual property rights as they apply to books">intellectual property rights as they apply to books</a> and the complex issues surrounding copyright – usually in the context of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/sep/07/google-library-digitisation-new-zealand" title="Google's mass digitization programme">Google's mass digitisation programme</a>. It's an ongoing story, part of the reshaping of the literary landscape in the aftermath of the IT revolution of the 1990s. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/31/google-street-view-intrusion" title="Mention Google">Mention Google</a>, of course, and you can stray into a no man's land of polemic but there are signs that, with the passage of time, reason is returning to her throne.</p><p>One of the most subtle commentators on this subject is the historian Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library. <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/oct/28/can-we-create-national-digital-library/" title="He surpasses himself">He surpasses himself</a> in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, in a reprint of a talk he gave at the beginning of October addressing the possibility of a US national digital library. No one who's concerned with these matters, in the States or globally, should miss it.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/01/google-copyright-national-digital-library">Continue reading...</a>LibrariesPublishingBooksGoogleIntellectual propertyTechnologyDigital mediaMediaCultureGoogle MapsMon, 01 Nov 2010 14:53:52 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/nov/01/google-copyright-national-digital-libraryPhotograph: Paul Sakuma/APHitting the books ... Google founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/APPhotograph: Paul Sakuma/APHitting the books ... Google founders Sergey Brin, left, and Larry Page. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/APRobert McCrum2010-11-01T14:53:52ZGoogle's 130m book count – and ourshttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/aug/09/google-book-count-ours
The search behemoth's calculation is that there are 130m in the world. How many of those are on your shelves?<p>So Google have come up with a number, and it's big. Thanks to the blistering pace of technology, of course, its <a href="http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2010/08/books-of-world-stand-up-and-be-counted.html" title="claim that there are 130m books in the world">claim that there are precisely 129,864,880 books in the world</a> will already be just that little bit out of date – but it's enough to set you thinking. How many of them are any good? How many of them have never been read by anybody other than their author? How many of them are <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/05/amazon-uk-kindle-ebook-store" title="">available on the Kindle</a>?</p><p>The number itself, naturally, is open to dispute. <a href="http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2010/08/books-of-world-stand-up-and-be-counted.html" title="">On the Google Books blog</a>, "software engineer" Leonid Taycher goes into gnarly detail about how they've arrived at it, beginning with the question "what is a book?" and going on to investigate issues of duplication, the reliability of sources and the exclusion of "non-books" (microforms, maps, t-shirts with ISBNs – there are around 1,000, apparently). It seems that they've given lots of thought to the matter, at any rate, but what we'd like to know is a much more homespun sort of number. How many books can you, personally, put your name to?</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/aug/09/google-book-count-ours">Continue reading...</a>EbooksBooksCultureTechnologyGoogleMon, 09 Aug 2010 10:09:25 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/aug/09/google-book-count-oursPhotograph: WoodyStock /AlamyPile of books. Photograph: WoodyStock /AlamyPhotograph: WoodyStock /AlamyPile of books. Photograph: WoodyStock /AlamyRichard Lea2010-08-09T10:09:25ZGoogle Books deal forces us to rethink copyrighthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/sep/25/google-books-copyright
The Google Books deal has been postponed: good. But what we really need is copyright reform<p>Last Friday, the US Department of Justice gave the Google Books settlement a <a href="http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/doj-google-reject/">clip across the ear</a>. The DoJ filing basically told the parties they were overreaching the bounds of a settlement, effectively creating new law. It also waved the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&amp;sid=a_zsREZ._gYo">anti-trust stick</a>. The settlement as we knew it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/sep/25/google-books-delayed">now seems to be off the table</a>.</p><p>In one sense I'm relieved. I opted out, which <a href="http://www.nickharkaway.com/2009/09/google-crunch-time/">felt like a huge decision</a>, and now it looks as if things are less cut and dried than I feared they might be. I'm also relieved that the good practice of copyright is being protected. On the other hand, I'm disappointed. Google's library plan was staggering and exciting – it wasn't the idea I objected to, but the method.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/sep/25/google-books-copyright">Continue reading...</a>BooksEbooksPublishingGoogleIntellectual propertyTechnologyFri, 25 Sep 2009 15:36:10 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/sep/25/google-books-copyrightPhotograph: Boris Roessler/EPAA hearing into the $125m Google Books deal has been delayed. Photograph: Boris Roessler/EPAPhotograph: Boris Roessler/EPAA hearing into the $125m Google Books deal has been delayed. Photograph: Boris Roessler/EPANick Harkaway2009-09-25T15:36:10Z